Tax bill sent for Catholic church

Boston, Massachusetts —

As it struggles to improve its financial condition by selling off closed churches, the Boston Archdiocese is facing a new and unfamiliar kind of expense: property taxes.

Under state law, houses of worship are exempt from property taxes, but more than 60 churches have closed under a major restructuring of the archdiocese and local assessors are beginning to look at them as taxable property.

"What the law says is that a church or a house of religious worship has to be owned by the tax-exempt entity and occupied for religious services or instruction," said Marlene Locke, chief assessor for the city of Danvers, who recently sent the archdiocese a bill of $13,450 for the closed St. Alphonsus Church.

"My feeling was the church has been sitting vacant for over a year, they are actively marketing it. ... I felt that it no longer met the requirements for a religious tax exemption," she said.

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said its lawyers are reviewing the issue.

Tim Connolly, a spokesman for the state Department of Revenue, said the decision on whether to tax closed churches will be left to individual communities.

Donilon said the archdiocese, rocked by the clergy sex-abuse scandal, is working hard to rebuild and extra tax bills "contribute additional financial pressure."

Read the article at The Seattle Times Dated August 6, 2005

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